These are a few of my impressions when I attended a Catholic wedding service (which included mass) yesterday:1. The priest wore a wedding ring. I had almost forgotten that these guys think they are married to God.
2. The priest was young, handsome, articulate and looked like he should be out playing with his kids at the park (or, I suppose, strolling along the waterfront with his boyfriend). I had an almost uncontrollable urge to run up to the alter and yell: “Give your head a f*cking shake!”
3. Before the service began, the priest made it clear that holy crackers were going to be served but that only Roman Catholics were welcome to receive them. This was the first time I ever heard this proviso at the beginning of a mass. I wonder whether it was motivated by the recent controversy involving the supposed pocketing of a host by Canadian Prime Minister Harper.
4. The statue of the Virgin Mary was standing on a serpent. Freaky.
4. The statue of the Virgin Mary was standing on a serpent. Freaky.
5. Over 25 years since I last attended mass and I remembered the responses (include example) like it was yesterday. You never really escape religion if you are heavy indoctrinated (or, in my case, simply immersed) as a child.
6. At the invitation of the bride, my eight year old daughter participated in the service by bringing the wine to the priest during the mass. Suffice it to say that she was most displeased to learn after the service that she had been carrying the Blood of Christ. While she waited on the alter, I wasn’t sure if I would be struck by lightning or die laughing.
7. The priest delivered a short sermon to the bride and groom in which he implored them to regularly participate in the sacrament of reconciliation (i.e. confession). What a joke. The brother of the bride told me that he gave up going to confession after all the Roman Catholic sex scandals began coming to light and he realized that the priests were often more “sinful” than he was.
8. I was unable to explain to my daughter how, in the year 2009, a worldwide institution offers up a vocation that is only available to men.
9. I was unable to explain transubstantiation to my daughter although, if I was a betting man (and I am), I would say that the only person in the packed Basilica that believes that crap is the poor deluded soul wearing the flowing robes at the front …. and even he probably doesn’t like to give it a lot of thought.
10. Organized religion serves a very useful purpose for funerals but offers nothing of use when it comes to weddings. I just spent over an hour listen to someone drone on about the “Body and Blood of Christ” and lecture a young couple about marriage, a topic he knows nothing about. My daughter left the service thinking that both war and divorce are “caused by sin” and that both can be avoided by regular attendance at Roman Catholic mass. Makes sense. After all, it is the “one true Church”.
Egads. Don't you hate it when you're pretty much compelled to participate in mumbo-jumbo like that out of family obligation? I love my family, but I only attend their rites to avoid arguments.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that the orthodox Jews I'm related to wouldn't dream of inviting me to one of their weddings. Have you ever attending a wedding reception where the men and women had to sit in separate parts of the rooms, divided by a high screen so they can't peek over? I did...once. Ugh.
Then again, I'd find it fascinating to attend such a service simply out of curiosity...sit in the back and just observe. But I hear they don't like that. I guess they don't like to feel like those natives in New Guinea when National Geographic comes to town. LOL
My fondest memory (in a twisted way, of course) of Catholic weddings came several years back. The bride was/is very much a proponent of women's rights and independence. She was not told of some of the readings that were going to be given. One elderly gentleman (a friend of the groom's family) stood up and read out something from the Holy Book that put women back 100 years. The look on the face of the bride was priceless.
ReplyDeleteI think they're divorced now.
I would like to comment on "lecture a young couple about marriage, a topic he knows nothing about". We don't have to expirience something personally to know something about it (actually often personal expirience distort view of the thing as such). Sit for some time in the confessional box and you will realize how many various stories told as honestly as one can and most often of the most common nature from home priest hear (not to say that it is not so rare for them to have indeed a girlfriend of their own aside). And also after all it is lecturing, so it telling you how it should be (and this can vary as much from reality as one wants).
ReplyDeleteYou stated the comment that organized religion has no role in weddings. I find this to be quite comical seeing that the first institution that was established by God was marriage, that of Adam and Eve. So to say that organized religion plays no role in weddings is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteWere they actually married in contemporary sense? Anyway wedding is something for which church is not needed, it is more about public recognition and getting blessing from God's agent.
ReplyDelete